Throughout the season, I’ll be looking at three questions I have for each of the Kansas City Chiefs’ upcoming opponents. For Week 1, Kansas City faces a familiar foe: its AFC West rival, the Los Angeles Chargers. Here’s what I’ll be looking for when the game starts.
1. Can the Chiefs’ pass rush overwhelm the Chargers’ offensive line?
Season-ending injuries are terrible — particularly when they happen before it gets underway. During the offseason, the Chargers’ Pro Bowl left tackle Rashawn Slater tore his patellar tendon. He will not play in 2025.
But even before the injury, there were some question marks about the Los Angeles offensive line. While Slater and Joe Alt looked elite at tackle, the interior of the offensive line wasn’t even close to that level. And despite being bad in 2024, the Chargers didn’t do much about it for 2025.
Los Angeles did sign Mehki Becton from the Philadelphia Eagles — but while he had a great 2024 season, he has health concerns. He missed three weeks of training camp with an undisclosed injury. But aside from him, the Chargers have the same interior players who struggled last year.
And with Slater out, they must now deal with a concern at right tackle, because Alt has moved to the left side. Going into the season, this might be a bottom-5 offensive line. This allows Kansas City to get its pass rush going early. If I’m to believe the defensive line can improve from a subpar 2024, I’ll need to see the Chiefs impact the pocket throughout the game.
2. Can the Chiefs’ offense be explosive against Jesse Minter’s defense?
One of last season’s surprises was how well the Los Angeles defense played. In the Brandon Staley era, the unit was a disaster. The team didn’t make any meaningful personnel moves before defensive coordinator Jesse Minter took over, so it was unclear whether the former Michigan coach could make a big improvement.
But in his first season, the Chargers’ defense dramatically exceeded expectations. Even with some shaky performances against top offenses, Los Angeles finished seventh in total success rate — fourth in passing and 15th against the run. Considering his personnel limitations, Minter did a tremendous job — and his defense played a big role in getting the Chargers into the playoffs.
Minter’s defense got the job done by keeping a lid on explosive downfield plays, relying on deep zone coverage to protect it over the top. This allowed defenders to rally to the ball. Since it didn’t have the bodies for it, the unit didn’t blitz or use man coverage. Instead, it forced opposing offenses into long drives — and made enough stops to make it a top-10 defense.
So for the Chiefs, the challenge will be to find explosive plays against Minter’s defense. Throughout the offseason, we’ve heard about Kansas City taking more deep shots — but against the Chargers’ defense, those might not be available. How can the Chiefs create some explosive plays?
Los Angeles plays with very light boxes, so there should be opportunities for the Chiefs to be explosive on the ground. If Isiah Pacheco is going to have a great year, we should be able to see him get into space on Friday night. This will also be a great test for Kansas City’s wide receivers. Will they be able to break tackles — something they couldn’t do often enough in 2024? The wideouts are clearly more dynamic. Will that translate to success?
3. What can we expect from the Chiefs’ run defense?
During the preseason, we saw Kansas City’s run defense struggle — especially against the Seahawks, who gained 268 yards on the ground. I try not to take much away from any preseason game — but in Seattle, the run defense looked pretty shaky.
Besides… we know the Chargers are going to run the ball. Even with their bad offensive line (and poor running backs) in 2024, they were committed to establishing that identity — because that’s what any team with Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman will do. While the offensive line is still an issue for this season, Los Angeles did invest a first-round pick into running back Omarion Hampton — and signed Najee Harris in free agency, too.
In this game, Hampton will probably be the main rusher. His combination of power and explosiveness reminds me of Joe Mixon — and I think the Chargers will feed him touches to limit what their offensive line has to do in pass protection.
For the Chiefs, I’m primarily interested in seeing how the safeties will do against the run. In 2024, Justin Reid played a key role in the run defense. He could target and tackle running backs one-on-one, which allowed the team to have a great run defense — even while using a quarters-based coverage scheme. Will the guys replacing Reid be able to do that? Hampton is a home-run threat on any play, so Kansas City’s safeties will be the last line of defense. I’ll be interested to see how they perform.
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